


Knitting Therapy

by decadent_mousse



Series: I Knit So I Don't Kill People [2]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Knitting, Knitting Lessons, Recovery, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 05:54:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5956132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh takes up knitting for stress relief, or tries to.  Ashley helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knitting Therapy

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was born out of a headcanon discussion with [patster223](http://archiveofourown.org/users/patster223/pseuds/patster223), who brought up Josh taking up knitting post-game as a productive outlet for his anger and depression issues. I have a long-standing headcanon that Ash knits for stress relief, too, and together we had an idea of Josh and Ash reconnecting when he breaks down and asks her for knitting advice, and that conversation led to this.

Ashley showed up on his doorstep with a bag of yarn and knitting needles.  "Okay, what's the yarn emergency?"

He held up the scarf he'd been wrestling with all morning.  Though at that point calling it a scarf was being pretty generous.  

"Oh geez."

"Yeah."

"What were you trying to do?"

"A herringbone stitch."

The look on her face was a combination of sympathy and horror, with just a little bit of amusement.  "Oh."

"...Yeah."

She waved her bag.  "Good thing I came prepared.  Can I... come in?"

That made sense.  Letting her in made sense.  He hadn’t had her drive halfway across town just to show her his knitting mishap then close the door in her face.  Even so, he had a hard time doing it.  After lurking in his apartment alone for the past month it felt like a weird kind of invasion.  A yarn invasion.

"Yeah, sure." 

He moved to the side and she squeezed by him with a smile.  She walked in and looked around his living room.  

"This is a nice place."

"Thanks.”

"Has anyone else come over to see you?"   _ Since you nearly got us all killed, _ she didn't say, even if she might've been thinking it, and he appreciated that.

"Chris drops by from time to time.  Just to make sure I'm still breathing, you know."  He'd meant it as a joke, but it hadn't come out sounding like one.  "Sorry."

“No!  No, it’s okay.”

They stood there awkwardly in the middle of his living room.  Ash acted like she was afraid to touch or sit on anything, and Josh, personally, was worried that if he opened his mouth again he was just going to keep digging a bigger hole for himself.  He used to be better at this socializing thing.  

“So,” Ash said finally, “let’s see if we can get you knitting herringbone.”

He nodded, relieved, “Yeah.  Alright.  I, uh, watched a tutorial on Youtube, but I’m hoping seeing someone do it in person might help.”

“Yeah!  And you know, sometimes you just need to approach things differently?  We can try a few different things and see what happens.”  She smiled.  “I’ll have you knitting herringbone scarves by the end of the day.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that if I were you.”

~

"You're holding your needles way too tight,” Ashley said, after he slipped a stitch for… honestly, he’d lost track of how many he’d slipped at this point.  The scarf actually looked  _ worse _ than it had before Ash had shown up, and he was starting to get aggravated.

"This is just how I hold things.”

"You draw, right?  Show me how you hold a pencil when you’re doing that."

He adjusted his grip on the knitting needle and lifted his hand for her to see.

"Wow, that explains a lot.  You look ready to stab someone."

Josh smirked.  "Well, you would know, wouldn't you?"

She let out a surprised laugh and smacked him on the shoulder.  "I can't believe you just said that to me."  She huffed.  “Okay, you’re holding them in an okay position, you just need to loosen your grip a little.  That’s why your stitches are ending up so tight, and that’s why you keep messing up.  Look,” she wiggled her hands, “like this.”   


That… was completely unhelpful.  She looked like she was holding hers the exact same way as he was holding his.  What the hell?

He scowled.  “This isn’t working.”

“First of all, you need to relax a little.”

“I  _ am _ relaxed.”

“Really?”  She looked like she wanted to laugh.  He was grateful that she didn’t.  She set her needles down on the coffee table.  “Okay, we’re going to try something different.  Turn around.”

“What?”

She gestured with a finger, making a circular gesture.  “Turn around.  Not, like, all the way around, just sort of a bit to the side, facing away from me.”

She was up to something.  Hopefully something that would make him feel less like his head was going to explode.  He obeyed.  A second later, he felt her hands rest lightly on his shoulders.  

“First of all, loosen your shoulders a little bit, okay?  Take a deep breath, relax.”

He rolled his eyes and did as she asked, even though he didn’t really think it’d do much good.  “Yeah, okay.”

“Well, that’s… slightly better.”

“Now what?”

In response she reached around his shoulders and gently laid her hands over his.  Whatever he’d been expecting her to do, this wasn’t that.  When he froze, she froze.  

“Is this-- okay?”

He was fucking this up.  He was making it weird.  He took another Deep Breath (™) and glanced at her.  “Of course.  It’s fine.”

“Okay, so…”  She spread her fingers out across his and nudged them slightly apart.  “How do your fingers not cramp like this?”

“They do.”

“Well, didn’t you think that maybe the reason they were cramping is because you were holding the needles too tight?”

“No?”

She sighed loudly, and he chuckled.  

She started nudging at him again, and he let her scoot his fingers around like they were her playthings.  She moved her hands to his wrists and he figured that was his cue to relax his wrists.  When he did, she tilted them slightly, then went back to his fingers.  He glanced at her again, watching her face as she focused on what she was doing with a determined expression, which was probably what  _ he _ should have been doing, but…  

His cheeks burned.

She took his working yarn and wrapped it loosely around his pinky and looked up at him before he had a chance to look away, and her eyes widened when she realized she was being stared at.

_ Way to be a creeper, Josh _ .

“Uh.  There,” she said, “try now.” 

Was she…  _ blushing _ ?

He cleared his throat.  “Right.”  

He’d been going through the motions of the fabled herringbone stitch all fucking morning, so he pretty much knew it by heart, now, he just needed to actually  _ do _ it without slipping stitches or dropping his needles.  He slipped the second needle into the first two stitches on the other, doing his best not to tighten his grip, which was… a lot harder than it sounded.  Ironically, it took way more effort and energy to relax his hold on the needles than it did to just grip the shit out of them.  

It might’ve been a little easier without Ashley watching, but he kind of liked her where she was, pressed against his back with her chin on his shoulder and her hands resting lightly near his elbows.  

Scratch that, it would have been a lot easier.  

He tried to focus more on the yarn and less on the fact that Ashley was kind of hugging him.  It got easier, after awhile, as he concentrated more and more on the movement of the needles.  He got one row done, then another, then two more.  Which, in the grand scheme of things, was only four rows, which-- not so impressive, but it was something and he hadn’t slipped a stitch  _ once _ .

“Ha!” 

“Yes!” Ash cheered.  “I knew you could do it!”   


He grinned at her.  She grinned at him.  Their faces were very, very close together.  Ridiculously close.  Close enough, that if he completely  _ lost his mind _ and decided he wanted to kiss her, he probably could have.  He didn’t.  

She squeezed his arms, before pulling away, and he felt both weirdly relieved and regretful.

**Author's Note:**

> I can confirm from personal experience that herringbone stitch is a pain in the ass.
> 
> Also look at this [amazing and cute fanart](http://lovelybonezproductions.tumblr.com/post/138626849130/i-blame-decadentmousse-for-this-i-didnt) someone drew for this fic!


End file.
